Year 1 – Year 6

Year 1 is a fantastic time, filled with learning and fun! Our reading and number skills are developing, helping us to decode the world around us. We work collaboratively, building on our social skills and making life-long bonds. Through our topics, we learn to question and investigate, ‘Are my toys the same as my grandparents’ toys?’ or ‘What materials could I use to innovate?’ When we are not in the classroom, we might be in the woodlands, on a school trip, or even with our friends in the Danish department. Year 1 is best described by those who are living it! Therefore, we have collected some quotes from the Year 1 children about their experiences.

Quotes from Year 1 children:

Maths:

“I like learning my numbers through singing songs.”

“We make our number bonds using cubes!”

Learning to read and write:

“I like discovering different things when we read the stories.”

“We have lots of stories!”

Science:

“We do messy experiments!”

“We always ask the questions, and we can try to answer them.”

Collaboration:

“I can ask my table team how to write a sound and they can ask me.”

Construction:

“I like construction time because I like seeing how things work and feel.”

Art:

“We use different things to paint with and make our pictures. Sometimes we forget to wear aprons!”

General:

“Everyday I come in and I feel happy because I am not alone, I am with all my friends.”

“At the start, I was scared to come to school but now I have all my friends.”

“I like seeing how the different toys work and where the different toys come from in Golden Time.”

Year 2 at Rygaards School is a vibrant and engaging year, filled with excitement across the curriculum. A strong emphasis is placed on hands-on learning, particularly in Mathematics, where children develop a deep understanding through problem-solving and practical exploration. In English and reading, we see the children grow into independent readers while also becoming more critical thinkers: asking questions, reflecting on texts and developing an awareness of what it means to read effectively. Science lessons encourage curiosity, as students explore and experiment with the world around them.

Our learning is further enriched through exciting, immersive cross-curricular units, such as Our Island, Our Rules and The Time Traveller’s Box. These experiences allow children to make meaningful connections across subjects while engaging creatively and collaboratively.

The year is enhanced by a range of memorable experiences, including special themed days such as ‘Victorian Day’ and exciting trips that bring learning to life. A highlight of Year 2 is the Nativity performance for the whole school. It is a significant challenge, but one that the children consistently rise to with confidence and pride.

By the end of Year 2, pupils leave ready for the next stage of their schooling as more independent, confident and resilient learners.

Quotes from Year 2 children:

“I will never forget when we pretended to be Victorian children and the teachers were so strict!”

“My favourite part of Year 2 was ‘Our Island, Our Rules’ because I like to build my own world. Also, I learnt about forgiveness in ‘Our Island Our Rules.’”

“In Year 2, I love the Time Traveller’s Box learning because every week there is a new clue and it is exciting!”

“I felt so proud when the audience stood up and clapped their hands at the end of the Nativity.”

“I was nervous until I heard the ovation.”

“I love PE because we play cricket and football.”

In Year 3, the focus is on the joy of learning. We use a mix of learning styles so that all children have their chance to shine. We make sure our classrooms are friendly and safe, always remembering that mistakes help us to learn. Children are becoming more independent and learning how to sort out small difficulties at playtime, with the support and guidance of our teachers.

Wherever possible, we encourage creativity throughout the curriculum, working on lots of fun projects such as Viking role play, making artistic creations and STEM activities. Children often have a choice on how to display their work and what they want to learn more about.

We like to immerse ourselves in a topic, making the most of what Denmark has to offer. We take many trips, including a trip to explore how the real Vikings lived. We love museums and even turn our classroom into one!

In Year 3, we learn Science through experimenting and getting our hands dirty. By the end of the year, we all know how to create a fair test and to think like a scientist!

During the Year, as our topics move from the Vikings to Australia to the Dinosaurs, our classroom also takes on a transformation. The children’s creations help our walls and display boards come to life with colour and information. We love inviting parents in to share our hard work and do so at the end of each topic. We present, dance, sing and most of all, we have fun!

Quotes from Year 3 children:

English:

“I loved writing the Dear Teacher letter and making up silly and imaginative excuses not to have to go to school.”

“I just like English because it is creative.”

“I love going to the library because it’s a whole new world of books and I love reading.”

Maths:

“I liked using the clocks, each number is five minutes not one minute and using the clock helped me to learn that.”

“The more you practise, the better you get.”

“I like having a challenge task; it makes me think and I like that.”

Topic:

“We made our parents complete a Viking worksheet that we had made when we turned our classroom into a museum for a day.”

“I loved the Viking role play where we pretended to live in a Viking Long House.”

“We loved having our parents in to watch our Dreamtime Story performances.”

Science:

“The egg drop experiment was creative and fun. We built a shelter to protect our egg. My egg survived!”

“We did lots of crazy experiments when we were learning about friction and gravity.”

“I liked learning about solids, liquids and gases. We learnt about particles and how far apart they are.”

Best Bits:

“We have Coffee Mornings with our parents. We can show them our work and have fun at the same time.”

“We go on lots of trips!”

In Year 4, we are growing more independent with our learning and thinking. We develop new skills that help us learn how to be caring friends. Our listening and emotional skills are developed to help us grow in kindness and consideration towards each other at a time when our individuality is really starting to take off. We integrate the school’s values into our learning and follow the Second Step programme to help us understand ourselves and learn how to be the best versions of ourselves.

In year 4, there are many engaging and interesting topics that we study, allowing us to increase our curiosity and independence as learners. We begin the year learning about the rainforests which integrates into our Art and our English lessons. We read “The Iron Giant” which links into our Inventions topic. We visit the Technical Invention Museum and create electronic boards games which we invite the parents in to play. In the Summer Term, we learn all about Ancient Egypt and make stop motion animations about the mummification process. In April, we go to Hillerød on a three day residential trip and we visit the amazing Frederiksborg castle. Life is never dull in Year 4!

Here’s what the current Year 4s have loved doing this year:

• Visiting Fredriksborg castle with our classmates.
• Going to the Experimentarium – Science is so much fun!
• Learning about Ancient Egyptian gods and making a sarcophagus was my favourite part of Year 4.
• Writing playscripts for James and The Giant Peach.
• Playing in the woodlands on our 3-day trip.
• I loved learning about Picasso and making a class collage together.
• Using Myimaths for homework was fun.
• Fun visit to Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek to learn about Ancient Egypt.

Quotes from Year 4 children:

“I really enjoyed visiting the Teknisk Museum to learn about inventions.”

“I loved learning about the rainforest. It really showed me how important it is.”

“I had fun visiting the Copenhagen Zoo. I learnt a lot about different habitats and how animals are adapted to them. I loved the workshop.”

“Getting to touch a snake, touch a stick insect and see poison arrow frogs at the zoo was the best!”

“The best was designing a choice chamber to find out what type of habitat woodlice prefer.”

“My favourite work in Year 4 was making non-chronological reports about different spiders.”

“I really enjoyed making electric board games. It taught me how electricity works. It was so much fun playing them with our parents.”

Year 5 is full of adventure and exploration. We continue to improve our writing skills, creating a lot of fun and different writing pieces in a variety of genres during our Creative Writing lessons. Year 5 loves Maths and we are always working to take our skills to the next level. In Science, we are often conducting experiments and the best ones take us into the kitchen! In Social Studies, we learn about Japan, Ancient Greece, Denmark and much more.

We go on a lot of fun adventures in Year 5. We gaze at the fish in the Blue Planet and stare at the stars in the Planetarium. We also go to local parks when the weather is nice. When we study Christian IV, we take trips into Copenhagen to see the Christian IV buildings we have studied. All of these day trips help to prepare us for our three-day trip to Helsingør where we dive further into Danish history with a special focus on Hamlet and The Danish Royals. We are always on the go and enjoy taking our learning outside.

Quotes from Year 5 children:

“My personal spotlight of Year 5 was when we did presentations on the Christian IV buildings in town.”

“Helsingør is fun and exciting!”

“We’ve done a lot of orienteering and I learned how to read a map.”

“I am learning a lot about how to communicate well with my classmates.”

“Helsingør was super exciting! I especially liked the dungeons at Kronborg Castle!”

In Year 6, pupils develop independence, resilience and teamwork through a broad, internationally focused curriculum with strong local roots. In Social Studies, pupils learn about the Vikings who ruled over Denmark by walking a mile in their shoes at Lejre, the Land of Legends. The Second World War is studied from a Danish perspective with a visit to the Resistance museum, and pupils develop their knowledge and understanding of mountains and rivers in Geography work. Year 6 pupils also go on a five day residential trip to Aarhus, where they visit the Old Town, Moesgaard Museum, and the wonderful Rainbow Panorama at ArOs. We also stay in a fantastic hostel in the woods, where the children can play sports, hang out with their friends and where the food is great!

Quotes from Year 6 children:

“At the start of the year we all went to Lejre to learn about how Vikings lived. We dressed up in Viking clothes, made fires with flint and steel and visited the amazing Viking hall.”

“I really enjoyed the Maths work on reflecting, translating and rotating 2D shapes. Sometimes we had to use mirrors to help us. We also learned about ratio and proportion by designing our very own Theme Park; that was fun.”

“We did some great art activities. We made curves from straight lines using thread and used old rubbish to make a whole class sculpture.”

“In computer lessons we did some fun lessons on coding. And at Christmas we coded our own dance party which we could show to the rest of the class.”

“We studied Macbeth by William Shakespeare and then we split up into groups to write a rap song inspired by the story, which we then performed with background music.”

“I loved the class trip to Aarhus! We spent a whole week in a hostel in the middle of a forest. We visited the famous art museum and Den Gamle By, a recreation of historic Danish buildings.”

“My favorite memory was being involved in school sports! We competed in Cross Country, Football and Touch Rugby competitions against schools from all over Denmark!”